Round 5 of the Alpha Showdown 2012 has the back-from-the-dead leader of Cadogan House of vampires Ethan Sullivan taking on Atticus O’Sullivan, a 2,100-year-old druid with a death goddess backing him up.

We expect blood — Ethan looks thirsty — and magic — Atticus can pull from the earth. But most of all we expect a serious fight from the two alphas with Sullivan in their last name.

Read the pitches, then make the call. Who should advance to the next round in the Alpha Showdown? The poll at the end of this post will be open for two days (closing at 11:59 p.m. CST on May 19). Remember, alphas don’t share titles. Your votes decide who advances in the Alpha Showdown 2012.

Ethan Sullivan, leader of House Cadogan, is the vampire you’d want having your back in any situation (or have you on your back for, but that’s another story). He’s smart, witty, cunning, arrogant, proud, measured, and strong. He’s a true leader, a vampire who’s adapted to the change of years and come out stronger.

Plus he looks like this: “He was tall, two or three inches over six feet, and lean like a swimmer—narrow waist, broad shoulders, long legs. His hair was straight, shoulder-length, and golden-blond. His face was chiseled—knife-edge cheekbones and a firm jaw, his brow strong, his lips worth calling home about.”

What’s more, Ethan is incredibly loyal. He puts the safety of Cadogan vampires above all things, even if it means he loses something (in this case, Merit). He is arrogant enough to own his decisions, he’s got a massive ego, and he will go toe-to-toe with his woman, and respect her for standing up to him. Even as he tries to seduce her to change her opinion.

He’s not the meanest (Zsadist), the most lethal fighter (Bones?), the handsomest (Colin Ames-Beautmont), the smartest (uh…never mind, he might be), or the most terrifying (Zsadist! Nice to see you again!), but he’s the only vamp in this showdown who’s got everything.

Why does Atticus O’Sullivan kick booty? Let me count the ways. First, my favorite Druid is over 2,000 years old. 2,000, folks (but looks 21…a very hot 21)! The man has had a LOT of time to hone his magical and physical skills to a finely sharpened point.

Second, the entire planet Earth is his bitch. OK, not really, however, a great deal of his power comes from the earth, but it’s a give and take relationship, and it’s a very strong one. The man can heal himself, for Morrigan’s sake, and bind molecules together, cool stuff like that. Comes in handy after particularly nasty fights, yeah?

Speaking of Morrigan… The man has a death goddess on retainer! And he’s sort of friends with her. Well, inasmuch as you can be friends with a being that sort of, um, devours men. With sex (and other rather spectacular methods). Yeah, she’s a firecracker, and she LIKES Atticus.

Which leads me to my next point: our boy Atticus has friends in high places, like, um, gods. Then there are his friends in the vamp and were communities, which is nothing to shake a stick (or staff) at. Wrapping everything up into a nice, neat, sparkly bow of kick-assery, is the fact that Atticus is one loyal, obscenely powerful, and magically plugged in Druid. He will do absolutely anything for those he cares about and to protect the innocent. Seriously, you don’t want to perpetrate evil-doing on the man’s friends, or his dog (Oberon is off limits, people), or hell, the general public for that matter.

Atticus may not sprout hair or fangs, but he’s the ultimate Alpha, and don’t you forget it.

Atticus is as smart as they come – he has Fragarach, which can cut through any thing and has the ability to draw speed AND strength from the Earth. Let’s not forget he can UNBIND vampires. A few words later and Ethan is a puddle of goo.

I voted for Atticus since I liked how he sounded and frankly Ethan just doesn’t appeal to me. I know shocking but I think I am going to give Kevin Hearne’s series a try…sounds fabulous. Thanks VBC for this…got some new reads to check out.

Major oversight in your description of Atticus, Chelsea. I know I’m not the only one to remind you, but Atticus has a special advantage against vampires. Normally he’s not allowed to use his powers of binding and unbinding directly on his opponents, but because Vampires are already dead they don’t count. And it has been proven that the strength the Earth can give him rivals a vampires, even one that’s older than HE is (People know automatically what a vampire can do so Atticus should really have been described more carefully). Ten seconds of arm wrestling, and Ethan is so much molecular mass. Votes will favor Ethan of course, because vampires are all in, but Atticus would hand him his butt in a fight. Simple fact. He’s just got a unique and overwhelming advantage against an undead opponent. Almost anything else would give him more trouble.

Oh yeah, and what about Fragarach? No one’s even MENTIONED that he has an incredibly powerful magical sword. Come on, this is practically predetermined here, but you made it sound even.